White-Footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes

      (Any Forested Upland Except Conifer Plantations (Any Size Class))
      or Upland Brush
   containing:
      (Dead Down Woody Debris or Rock) 
      and Mast 
      and (Snags or Living Cavity Trees)

Habitat List:

view size class definitions

Literature:

It is one of the most common residents of deciduous woodlands, especially where herbaceous cover is moderate and rocks and logs are abundant. Late in the year, subadults may disperse into grassy areas or cultivated fields, but adults avoid such areas. Shrubby roadsides and fencerows are marginally acceptable habitat.

The mouse hides the nest under a log, inside a stump, or within a tree cavity, and in rural areas, this species is not above using buildings as sheltered nest sites.

A white-footed mouse forages in trees, on the ground, inside mole tunnels, or through passages beneath deep snow.

The white-footed mouse is largely omnivorous. Most of the diet is nuts or seeds from maple, oak, beech, hickory, and pine trees, as well as grasses and cultivated grains. It also eats cherries, grapes, and berries in season. Animal matter, especially grubs and caterpillars, provides needed protein and makes up 30% of the diet. In autumn, a white-footed mouse hoards food for winter consumption cashing items under logs or in tree hollows.

Habitat: Interiors and edges of deciduous, mixed, and coniferous forests from sea level to above tree-line. Clearcuts, brushy woodland clearings, pastures, streamside thickets, buildings.

Habitat Preferences: The white-footed mouse inhabits woodlands and brushlands and is active on the litter-strewn forest floor, in stumps, and under logs, as well as above ground in trees and shrubs. According to M'Closkey, shrub understory provides a "vertical complexity" for exploration, predator evasion, and foraging. Distribution is thus influenced by the successional stage of the woody growth and mosaic patterns of the habitats, especially in southern Michigan. White-footed mice can also occasionally be found in grassy and weedy areas. Such individuals, according to Burt and Whitaker, are often young or unsettled animals. However, this rodent may inhabit disturbed, early successional stages of Michigan farmlands where it is locally sympatric with the prairie form of the deer mouse. Heavy herbaceous cover seems less desirable, although seeds from various weeds (forbs) are attractive to the mouse in grass-sedge marsh areas. Woodland edges may provide some of the best habitat for this mouse.

The white-footed mouse's ability to climb efficiently allows it to utilize forested areas in three dimensions. Climbing activity declines in winter. In Michigan, at least half of the mice captured in woodlands may be above the ground, in traps set as high as 13 ft in trees. Many individuals nest above ground. Mice are also occasionally caught underground, especially in winter in eastern mole burrows which crisscross the forest substrate. According to Getz, white-footed mice generally avoid excessive moisture on the forest floor by living above ground. Although bodies of water may form barriers to white-footed mice, there are records of dispersal by swimming and possibly by winter ice crossings. Power-line corridor clearings as wide as 340 ft also seem to offer no obstacle to crossing movements.

The present mosaic pattern of woody habitats in much of southern Michigan might cause considerable isolation of white-footed mouse populations were it not for the animal's ability to spread from one woody area to another along brushy fence rows, roadsides, and streamways. These habitats provide minimum cover for encounters with mice from other habitats nearby. Even without such avenues, however, the mice are known to cross open areas between woodland patches.

Supposedly, the best Michigan habitat for white-footed mice is oak-hickory woodlands. In Leelanau County, Hatt found the species"…in most terrestrial communities in which there is shelter." In Washtenaw County, Wood caught mice in forests and corn fields. In Charlevoix County, Dice trapped white-footed mice in various woody and brushy areas but obtained most of them in virgin and second-growth hardwoods forests. In Montmorency County, Green obtained white-footed mice in pine barrens and coniferous swamps. In Clinton County, Linduska captured white-footed mice in shrub fencerows, upland woods, lowland woods, and even isolated trees. His discovery of the species' abundance in lowland woods has been confirmed by other studies. In the Allegan area, Hodgson and Brewer noted that white-footed mice were widespread in wooded areas with no apparent preference for any habitat type. In Kalamazoo County, Allen concluded that the species was the most common small mammal in brush and woodland. Consequently, white-footed mice can probably be found in southern Michigan in almost any complex, heterogeneous and forested habitat, with an understory of shrubs, rather than grass, being the most acceptable.

Density and Movements: Forested areas with abundant and varied shrub understory seem to hold the highest densities in the Michigan area. Although it is recognized that populations are dense in such areas, it is not fully known whether this environment provides abundant food, or whether it facilitates escape from predators.

Behavior: The white-footed mouse centers its activity about a nest site, which can be underground, under logs, in stone walls or rocky ledges, in stumps, under brush piles, in hollow trees, in dense growths of branches or vines, in bottles and cans in garbage dumps, in remodeled nests of birds, squirrels, or even bald-faced hornets, and in special nest boxes.

Associates: White-footed mice increase as the plant community advances to the brushy/forest stage; but meadow voles decline in this habitat.

In the northern Lower Peninsula and also in parts of the southwestern Upper Peninsula, the white-footed mouse may occur with the deer mouse of the subspecies. P. m. gracilis, known commonly as the woodland deer mouse. Since both of these mice live in woodlands, they associate but may prefer slightly different kinds of environments. For example, there is evidence that where only one of these two mice occurs, the preferred nesting sites are above ground. However, where they occur together, the deer mouse has a greater tendency to occupy the above-ground nesting area and the white-footed mouse uses sites on the forest floor. Wrigley found the white-footed mouse in Quebec most often lives in dry and warm pine-hardwoods and forest edge situations, and the woodland deer mouse lives in moist and cool depths of the forest. Klein obtained similar findings in Ontario. In the Charlevoix area of Michigan, Dice also found the white-footed mouse in open (edge) areas and second growth forest, with the woodland deer mouse more numerous in mature hardwoods. The exact ecologic relationships between these two mice are poorly understood however, the evidence does suggest that the white-footed mouse may have made its distributional gains in northern conifer/hardwood habitats following logging, replacing (or joining) the woodland deer mouse in much of the second growth and brush lands resulting from timber cutting. The cool, moist older forest stands probably remain the principal habitat for the woodland deer mouse.

Food Habits: The white-footed mouse eats primarily seeds and insects. Its low-crowned, cusp-covered teeth and uncomplicated digestive tract facilitate mastication and assimilation of these concentrated foodstuffs.

Ecology: Northern populations of this species reach highest densities in brushy fields and in woodlots dominated by deciduous trees but typically have low densities in grassy fields and in mature, mainly coniferous forests.

The habitat of P. leucopus typically includes a canopy (if only of brush), woody debris, and often rocks.